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Austria

While on our visa foray to Budapest, we allowed our hosts a brief rest (from us) by taking a day trip to Austria, Dan's homeland! The train ride was about 2 hours - a rather smooth trip to Vienna. Dad looks a little tired here, but Anna, as always, is wide-eyed and curious about everything. She made several friends on the train ride there - her German being much better than ours.

Our first stop was, of course, a cafe to enjoy a hot cup of Austria's specialty coffee: melange. The coffee roast is a bit lighter and it's served up with extra creamy milk for a flavor that's just heavenly no matter how delicate your coffee palate. This picture encapsulates three of Nana's favorites (in no particular order): melange, Dan and baby A.

We then ventured to the Christkindlmarkt, one of Vienna's finest Christmas markets. We ventured from stall to stall, surveying the beautiful woodwork and other Christmas gifts.

We tried gluhwein (mulled wine) - the perfect thing to warm even the chilliest of spendthrifts.

It was here that we met a friendly Austrian grandmother who carried on quite a lengthy conversation with Anna smiling and laughing along. She then turned to us and asked how old she was, one year? We held up 5 fingers to indicate 5 months and the friendly Austrian grandmother proceeded to puff out her cheeks, pillow out her tummy, and most delicately indicate to us that Anna seems to be a bit large for her age. Of course we couldn't understand all that she said, but hippopotamus seems the same in all languages...

All in all, we had a most wonderful day in Vienna, as always - and look forward to the possibility of returning sometime.

Nana loves it! Vienna is more beautiful than it was when Dan was 5 months old ... but the grandmothers are apparently exactly the same. I used to get scolded all the time ... his feet must be cold, he can't be comfortable in that backpack thing. Anna is cuter than you were though, Dan!

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